THE EVENT
Classes: Kindergarten through sixth grade.
Number of students: 250
Subject: Computer literacy
Students at Monte Vista Elementary are working with Kathy Cornelius, a paraprofessional who is not a certified teacher, to learn basic computer skills.
THE SCHOOL
Location: 22 S. 200 East, Farmington
Students: 300, kindergarten through sixth grade
Principal: Leo Glad
School district: Davis
THE LESSON
The learning: The students at Monte Vista work with Kathy Cornelius, a paraprofessional. Cornelius is not a certified teacher but has a background in computers and is one of a new group of educational workers who teach specialized subjects in the schools.
She is teaching keyboarding and other computer concepts to the children at the Monte Vista school each afternoon. In the morning, she works with the students at Lincoln Elementary. She has been attending the Davis Applied Technology Center in Kaysville, and, although she does not have a degree in education, she spent many hours as a volunteer at her children's school.
Cornelius said she loves working with the children, especially the younger ones. In one instance, she was teaching the kindergarten children to use the alphabet on the computer and could hear them happily singing the alphabet song to themselves as they worked. "Children understand computers and catch on very quickly," she said.